So how does one spill beer on the ceiling, anyway?

Floridacracker's recent post about painting the textured ceiling had me thinking about the inconveniences of what seemed like a good idea in the '90s. You know, that textured popcorn like bumpy ceiling stuff. It's difficult to paint, and melts away if you try to clean something off it. Like beer stains.

It all started when we were newlyweds, a year or two, and decided to get into making beer. We were living in this split level, semi rural development house that was very cookie-cutter like. And, it was too close to the freeway. Way too close. But it was on a pond with a wonderful view, and there were loons nesting outside my dining room window...So.

Anyway, we had recently discovered beer beyond Busch, and discovered that we could even make it at home! We invested in a "starter" beer kit, and followed the instructions to brew our first attempt, a stout. I proudly poured it into the primary fermenter, basically a six gallon bucket with an airlock on top. The day I first brewed, The Hermit had to head out for a business meeting, so I spent the first night as an anxious first time brew mistress alone.

At approximately 5 AM, I heard a loud BANG from the kitchen. I dragged myself out of bed to investigate. In the kitchen I found the fermenter, sans lid, and the lid several feet from the fermenter. Somehow the airlock had plugged up, pressure had built, and...BAM. There was a prominent dark brown stain on the kitchen ceiling, and dark beer splattered all over the kitchen.

The beer turned out okay. Very good, in fact, for a first time effort! The ceiling, well, I tried spraying bleach on it, with some success, but there was always a little spot there.

no deposit, no return

I hate packaging. Most of it is unrecyclable and it makes up the bulk of our garbage, which I would like to reduce to next to nil. When eating off something other than Chinets from Sam's Club becomes a viable alternative. :)

Glass, fortunately, is recyclable, although re-using it is the preferred alternative. To that end, brewing beer at home, storing it in re-usable glass bottles, and using the bottles for another batch of beer, seems to be a good option for reducing our impact on the planet. A little over a week ago I bottled our Baltic Porter, in bottles that had previously stored Three Hearted Ale and some Belgian Witbier. Using 23 ounce bottles reduces the number of bottles that must be washed, and who stops at just one 12 ounce beer anyway. :)

Unfortunately, our beer consumption still greatly exceeds our brewing capacity, so there is a net loss of screw top bottles to recycling, but any hobby that teaches a useful art is a step in the right direction.